The empire types back: colonialism, resistance, and storytelling online

Thesis

This doctoral thesis explores the dynamic relationship between digital technologies and storytelling practices in India. In contemporary terms, 'storytelling' encompasses a wide range of creative activities. This work focuses on India's digital storytelling platforms—websites, apps, and archives—that have emerged as venues where ordinary Indian Internet users write fiction, contribute folklore, and record oral tales.

Since 2016, India has experienced a surge in smartphone usage and 4G access, creating numerous opportunities for businesses and investors. This technological revolution has theoretically enabled more people than ever before to speak and write in public forums, and to be heard globally. This thesis examines the outputs of these digital expressions, positioning India as a historical site of storytelling and oral history now entering a new phase of digital creativity, imagination, and cultural preservation. I ask: How have these online spaces shaped Indian storytelling, and why is this relationship significant?

To answer this, I draw on nearly three years of research, blending ethnographic methods and literary analysis in a uniquely interdisciplinary study of Indian storytelling in the digital age. This research includes interviews with 23 digital Indian storytellers and archivists, a literary analysis of over 100 online stories, platform walkthroughs, and visual analysis. My study highlights the significant and joyful role technology plays in shaping leisure time for everyday Indians. It demonstrates how digital archives and storytelling platforms have the potential to shape and define communities in India and empower marginalised groups to contribute to the mainstream literary canon.

The thesis comprises three case studies, each offering different perspectives and focusing on various platforms or storytelling phenomena in India. These case studies show how these digital spaces allow ordinary Indians to express themselves while acknowledging that technology alone is no easy remedy for emancipation, or to correct inequalities. However, the thesis advocates for the creation of more storytelling archives and creative sites, emphasising that building new digital spaces is essential for us to be able to hear fresh new narratives, and for storytellers to be able to type back to the literary canon and the world at large.

Authors: Prakash, N

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-qzkbbwj8a
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: creativity; literature; India; platforms; digital humanities; storytelling; postcolonialism; digital; internet
• Subjects: Cultural relations; Postcolonialism; Literature and society; Storytelling; Literature and the Internet; Mass media